Research Overview

Part of the UW–Madison School of Education, the WIsconsin Center for Education Research (WCER) supports the grant-funded research of nearly 500 faculty, graduate students and academic staff, who collaborate with educators at the local, state and national levels.

The center is committed to providing an optimal environment to conceive, conduct and distribute world-class education research to:

improve educational outcomes for diverse student populations,

advance education practice positively and

create collaborations among academic disciplines and practitioners.

WCER provides expertise and essential infrastructure services, including a physical home, to scholars and their research teams to enable them to do their best work. The center’s principal investigators lead projects that directly affect education policy and practice locally and around the world. The center focuses on supporting initiatives that investigate, develop and promote evidence-based programs to improve teaching and learning.

WCER comprises approximately 140 projects in areas of research such as:

New learning technologies, such as e-textbooks and virtual internships

Preschool and afterschool education

From exploring how people learn, to measuring educational outcomes, broadening equitable learning and integrating technologies into teaching, WCER’s efforts have grown and evolved over the past 50 years to make learning as effective as possible for all ages and all people.

WIDA Consortium, which provides services and materials for educators of English language learners in 38 states as well as international schools in Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, India and Latin America.

Epistemic Games Group, which designs computer internship simulations to guide students through what it’s like to work for companies such as an urban planning and a biomedical engineering design firm.

Value-Added Research Center (VARC), which helps major metropolitan school districts turn mountains of student data into actionable information.

Contact Us

Wisconsin Center for Education Research
School of Education
University of Wisconsin–Madison
1025 West Johnson Street, Suite 785
Madison, Wisconsin 53706